Welcome to our Holiday Homeschool Planning Day! I’m so glad you’re here! Today we are preparing to plan our Thanksgiving and Christmas School for this year. In this homschool planning series, I am walking you through my exact method that I have honed over the past 17+ years of homeschooling: choosing your books, deciding which printables to use, and gathering your materials so you’re ready when your holiday school time arrives.
You can get started by watching the video first, or keep scrolling if you would rather read the prep ideas instead of watching.
➡️ Do you need to start from the beginning? Read through my Holiday Homeschool Planning Challenge page first.
This video was originally recorded for All Access Pass members, so you’ll hear references to printables included in their membership. The planning series is now free for everyone. You do not need a membership to follow along. The public planning pages link to free resources and paid packets, while AAP members can continue using the member pages for their included downloads.
Before You Plan Your Thanksgiving and Christmas School
Some of our best Thanksgiving and Christmas school weeks have been the ones I prepared ahead of time. The years when I planned a couple of hours before school started? Those didn’t turn out as well.
Yes, everyone had a lovely week, but I was more stressed because I was unprepared. I don’t enjoy feeling like that, so try to prevent it by planning!
My goal is to help you make your choices, gather your materials, and have everything ready before your holiday school begins. When Monday arrives, you can pull out your books and printed pages and enjoy the week with your children.
It really all falls into place so beautifully. And I want you to enjoy that, too!
You can watch the prep video above or follow the written steps below.
First, Decide How Much Time You Have
Get out your calendar and look at the days you actually have available for Thanksgiving School and Christmas School. Be very realistic.
I prefer a full week for each holiday. It gives us time to enjoy our books and activities without feeling rushed. However, some years we have only had the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving. You can work with that, too!
Decide how many days you have before choosing your materials. Later in this series, I’ll share what to prioritize when you only have a day or two.
Next, Decide What You Want Your Children to Learn
What are your goals for these school days?
If you have all littles, you might want a week of Thanksgiving books, fun pages, and activities together. That is a perfectly good and lovely plan.
As my children have grown, our Thanksgiving School has usually focused on early American history, the Pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving. I want my children to understand history, and we begin those conversations (in age appropriate ways) during the early years.
For Christmas School, my main focus is always the Birth of Christ. We have also enjoyed learning about Christmas trees and the history behind some of our Christmas traditions, but those topics are secondary.
Choose your main focus before you start looking through the book and activity lists. It will help you decide what belongs in your plan.
1. Choose Your Books
Books are always my first choice when planning a small unit study, and I definitely consider these Holiday School weeks a unit study. They give our days a starting point and help me choose the printables and activities that go with them.
Choosing the books helps give the whole study direction.
On the Thanksgiving and Christmas planning pages, you’ll find book suggestions for different ages. Some are suited to preschool and kindergarten, while others work well for elementary children. We’ve continued reading some of those books into the middle school years and even into high school.
Choose the books that fit your children and the goals you’ve set for your holiday school.
2. Choose Your Printables
Next, choose the printables you want to use alongside your books.
A preschooler will need different pages than a third grader, so the planning pages organize the suggestions by age or grade. Use those lists to choose what fits your children.
If you’re an All Access Pass member, use the member version of each planning page to download the included packets. If you’re following the public series, use the resource links to find the free printables or purchase any paid packets you want to include.
Once you’ve made your selections, print the pages and set them aside for your holiday school.
3. Choose Activities That Fit Your Children
Finally, choose a craft or hands-on activity your children will enjoy.
I have had children who could happily craft all day long, and begged to do so. My youngest boy, on the other hand, would be quite content if he never did another craft in his entire life! I give several activity choices, even for those children who don’t love sequins and glue.
Each holiday planning page includes suggestions to help you choose.
Gather Everything Before Your School Week Begins
Once you’ve chosen your books, printables, and activities, prepare the materials and put them together in a box or folders. I love to store mine in a lidded plastic tote. File folders on the desktop work also. This does not have to be fancy at all.
Organize them so you can find what you need for each day. When your holiday school begins, you’ll be able to pull out the materials you’ve already prepared instead of starting the planning all over again.
Before moving on, make sure you have answered these two questions:
- How many days do we have?
- What do I want our main focus to be?
Then you’re ready to choose your books, printables, and activities. Let’s start planning Thanksgiving School!
➡️ Click here to go to Day 1: Planning Thanksgiving School
➡️ Click here to return to the main Holiday Homeschool Planning Page
Thanksgiving Vocabulary Words for Kids — Free Printable List
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